In the Unlikely Event

In 1987, Miri Ammerman returns to her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life -- when a succession of airplanes fell from the sky, leaving her community reeling.

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I have been a fan of Judy Blume since childhood. It's nice to see that she has written some titles for adults. I enjoyed her other adult title that came out many years ago, Summer Sisters. This book was an interesting fictional account of true events that took place in New Jersey in the 1950's. The characters and story line were well developed. I had a hard time putting this book down!

I enjoyed reading this book, but it's definitely disturbing. The combination of how a community deals with multiple tragedies, mental health issues, family and marital issues, and of course, first love and does it all in the 1950s when none of these things were spoken about is interesting. This was a quick read- I couldn't put it down and wanted to know what was going to happen.

Blume’s strength shines through her perfect characterizations. Each character comes to life and feels real. There are so many characters but Blume weaves all their stories together seamlessly. Each person’s story touches another’s because of these unlikely events.

OK, once again, I goofed and my star rating isn't here. I rate this book 5 stars. Reading the comments of the other readers, it seems this book is either very much liked, or not liked at all. Some books are like that.

I REALLY liked this book. First of all, it is based on true happenings....in a period of 8 weeks, in 1953, 3 airplanes crashed into the city of Elizabeth, NJ. All either taking off from or trying to land at Newark Airport.

The author uses fiction to weave in and around these 3 accidents stories of people on the ground and in the planes. How each crash effects them and their friends and families. Though this is a fiction book, the author does include brief mentions and/or short stories using actual people from the crashes. A dancer who was beginning to make a name for herself in New York City, the pilot of one of the planes, and a few others.

I liked the stories Ms. Blume told. Some of shock, followed by getting on with their lives, some of shock followed by terrible despair, some of heroism when a group of school boys help save some passengers from one of the planes (this was a true incident). How some parents reacted, how some teaches reacted etc. After the 2nd crash, the citizens of Elizabeth started demanding that Newark Airport be closed! The main story centers around a group of teenagers, Jr. High and High School kids and their reactions and lives before, during and after the accidents.

It takes a bit to get into this book. So many characters, so many POV, but it does improve. Once you figure out who's who, the book is quite good. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but it isn't terrible.

Why is it so traumatic, I have just been through the toughest year of my life trying to deal with the death of my Love and my father and there have been many times when I thought that being dead myself would surely be better than trying to deal with the death of two people that were a significant part of my life and all the misery that went with it. What I want to know is, what is the point of grief, why is it so awful to the point that you feel your own life is not worth living, why is the experience so shocking and what do we really gain from it. I know I am not the same person and that everything is different now, I don't view that as a bad thing really but what it took me to get to the other side of this is something I find hard to deal with and I wonder what your thoughts are on grief? Can we ignore it and just get on with our lives because some people seem able to do that, whereas I couldn't carry on, I couldn't even function at all for months and months. Maybe that's a tough journey

Started slow and stayed that way. I put it down after about 60 pages and several days later I read the last couple chapters. There were too many people and it was long and boring. This will be the last book of hers that I will attempt to read.

Who didn't read a Judy Bloom book as a kid? And now writing for adults she doesn't disappoint. Its great to sink into her familiar style once again. She always seems to have a cute eccentric child in the story (Fern, a relative of Fudge perhaps?). She deals very well with the themes of puberty and young love. I was having a hard time keeping up with all the characters in the beginning but it did even out. I wanted to read it for a while because I read articles about Blume's experience growing up and having these crashes happen in her home town. It gave an authenticity to the story that I did not find in Summer Sisters. I do recommend it.